When the joint declaration was being negotiated between the British and the Chinese governments back in the 1980s, if I can go back to Deng Xiaoping's words, he said to Margaret Thatcher that to have an agreement under which we would take back Hong Kong was not going to be difficult. We could simply tell the British to get out. But he said it wouldn't be right unless it was supported by the people of Hong Kong. He made it a condition precedent to the agreement.
He actually got it, but at the time some Hong Kong people were very reluctant. Others saw in it a possibility for a successful future for Hong Kong even though many people, I suppose in their hearts, would have preferred some other means of settlement.
I for one went along with that, but starting from day one of the joint declaration, I made it my business to hold China to every promise contained in it, because to my mind if you let one promise go, the whole thing may collapse, and actually everything is tied together. That is why for all these years I have done my best or at least tried my best to hold China to all these promises.
It could still work if Xi Jinping were to go back to Deng Xiaoping's ways, the actual blueprint. But one of the important premises is that the Chinese leaders must trust the Hong Kong people. How can you have one country and two systems when there is no mutual trust? Now the trouble is that every time there is an election in Hong Kong, although the democrats in the Legislative Council have more votes than the opposition parties do, they are simply ignored in the Legislative Council because their superiority in voter support outside the Legislative Council is not translated into an equal number of seats or at least a proportionate one, since our method of elections is very unfair due to the dysfunctional constituency type of elections that still account for half of the legislature.
The government keeps on ignoring the democrats within the council, and that is the problem, which has to be redressed.
I hope, Mr. Chairman and honourable members, that your support of Hong Kong will be non-partisan. That is the case in the U.S. Congress, and that has been the case in the U.K. Parliament. You are stronger when you are united.